


coming out of my cage and I've been doing just fine

by orphan_account



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: F/F, siren au??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-12-18 05:30:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11867739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: “You have it bad,” Laslow states in the most serious voice he can manage. “You have it /really/ bad.”





	coming out of my cage and I've been doing just fine

**Author's Note:**

> this title made more sense at 3am
> 
> fe femsplash gift for peach-powah.tumblr.com !! hope y'all enjoy

Corrin sets one last box on the ground, wiping sweat out of her eyes.

“Hey, Camilla!” she calls down the hallway. “Don’t bother looking, there aren’t any more boxes!”

“That fast? Well, if you say so, dear.”

Camilla strides back into the room and leans on the open door, gazing almost fondly at the disheveled room. “Finally going off to college? You’ve grown up so fast; it feels like you were just a toddler yesterday.”

“Camilla, _please_.”

A light blush makes its way onto Corrin’s face as she halfheartedly throws a loose pillow at her sister. “I really don’t need the entire hall knowing what I was like as a baby.”

Camilla’s eyebrow climbs the slightest bit up her face.

“Have you really not noticed the crowd of girls behind you trying to talk to you?”

A muffled shriek accompanies Corrin’s statement; Camilla only raises a finger to her lips and winks.

“Well,” she announces louder than necessary, “I’ll be going now! Wouldn’t want to intimidate your roommate, hm? Stay safe, call if you need anything, and I’ll bring Elise over for a visit soon.”

And with that, Camilla blows a kiss and walks back out.

Corrin stifles a laugh at the ensuing chaos - one girl yelling “w-wait!” turns into two, then five, then _oh gods above, was that really all the girls that lived on her floor?_

A quiet knock on the door stops Corrin from doing anything drastic. She turns around, mouth half open and phone raised, and just blinks.

Standing in the doorway was the most beautiful woman that Corrin had ever seen - and, if she were to be honest, the most beautiful woman she would ever see. Long, flowing blue hair; a striking face; a plain white dress that would look boring on anyone else but manages to look stunning on this particular figure…

“You’re. Azura? Roommate?” Corrin squeaks out, cursing the way her voice cracks at the end. “I’m Corrin. Sorry about the mess, I just got here a few minutes ago…uh, take whichever side of the room you want, make yourself at home, and. Um. Yeah.”

Azura’s lips part in a surprised smile, and that alone (along with the wordless thanks glimmering in her eyes) makes Corrin’s heart skip a beat. She watches Azura carry her luggage into the room and shuffle through her belongings, only daring to breathe when the other girl’s head is buried deep in a box.

“Don’t you dare,” she whispers to herself. “Don’t you dare fall in love.”

———————————————————————————-

“Camilla!” Corrin wails over the phone one day. “I think I’ve fallen in love!”

“Well, you don’t need to sound so distressed about it, dear.” Camilla’s tinkling laughter does absolutely nothing to calm Corrin’s nerves. “It was bound to happen one way or another…although do tell, who is it?”

“My roommate, that’s who! She’s the prettiest girl - no, human I have ever seen, and I LIVE with her! And, okay, so she’s barely said a word to me this whole time, but she leaves me small notes and smiles so much and she’s so considerate, and - ugh!”

Corrin throws a pillow at the door to punctuate her statement. “I don’t know what to do, Camilla! Aren’t you good with these sorts of things?”

“I suppose so, yes. Where’s this roommate of yours right now? She’s not in?”

“Um.”

Corrin scoots over to the edge of her bed, chancing a peek out of the window. “Nah. She’s down at the beach right now. Which - okay, another thing. Azura’s almost always at the beach. Whenever she has any free time at all, she makes her way down there and…I don’t even know. Stands there? And I can’t even ask her what she does because she doesn’t even talk to me.”

Camilla huffs. “Well, you can’t very well do anything if your crush won’t talk to you. Try to figure out if she even wants to be friends with you first, maybe? And then we can go from there.”

“Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks, I really don’t know how I’d manage without you.”

“Oh, please. It’s just common sense; I’m sure you would have figured it out eventually.”

“Don’t overestimate me. I’ve been told that I’m denser than leo sometimes.”

The door squeaks open and Azura pokes her head in, eyes widening in an unsaid question.

“Sister,” Corrin mouths, pointing at her phone. “Uh, hey I think I have to go, so. Talk to you later?”

“Azura just walked in, didn’t she.”

Refusing to answer, Corrin instead focuses all of her energy onto trying to fight back the blush threatening to appear.

“Oh, go on, do whatever your little heart desires. Just remember, don’t be afraid to talk to her. And if you ever need anything, I’m here for you. And Leo, even if he won’t admit it. Okay?”

“Got it, thank - “

The dial tone sounds before Corrin even has the chance to properly say goodbye.

Once again, Corrin has to restrain herself from doing something drastic, burying her head in her pillow to muffle her small scream. Only a timid knock on her bedframe reminds her that Azura is even still there. Which in turn reminds Corrin of the conversation that she had just had and her hand darts out to grab Azura’s arm before she even has a chance to think about it.

“Azura, wait, I. Need to talk to you about something really quickly.”

…Then Corrin actually gets a look at Azura’s face, and immediately feels awful.

“Oh, no, please don’t worry. It’s nothing bad, I promise, I just - “

(Corrin knows what’s going to happen, can already see herself scaring Azura off, but feels powerless to stop the words from pouring out of her mouth.)

“ - why do you never talk to me? I get that it’s nothing personal, but, like. I know that you can talk, so if it’s something that I’m doing or something that I’ve done tell me so that I can change! I mean, we’re going to be living together for the next year, maybe more, and as dumb as it sounds I really do want to get to know you better, and I - !”

She freezes, mouth quite literally hanging open, when she hears someone who was most definitely not herself…giggling.

“I’m sorry,” the mysterious voice continues. “Was I bothering you that much?”

“Oh. My. Oh gods, is that…?” Corrin lifts up her head, pointing at Azura in disbelief. “You? You’re talking?”

“My apologies, was that too sudden?”

The expression on Azura’s face immediately changes, going from amused to an almost motherlike worry. “Are you feeling affected in any way? Um…dizziness, sudden fixation, anything…?”

Corrin blinks. Frowns. Looks down at herself.

“No? I’m feeling perfectly like myself. Why, am I supposed to feel different?”

“No.” Azura shakes her head vehemently. “Absolutely not.”

“Well, uh. Care to explain?”

Azura flushes bright red, then proceeds to mumble something that sounds like “I’m a siren, actually.”

Corrin stays quiet for what seems like an eternity.

Azura fiddles with the sleeves of her dress.

“So, what you’re telling me,” Corrin says slowly, “is that magical creatures exist? And you’re one of them? But…how - why are you here, then?”

“The rest of my family was actually…killed by fishermen, to put it nicely. I was found stranded on the beach by a family that was kind enough to take me in. Sirens do have slight magical powers, so I’m able to take on a human form whenever I need to, so that’s how I’ve been living for the past ten years or so. I can’t be away from water for too long, though, so that explains why I’m down at the beach so frequently.

“Oh.”

Corrin can only blink. “Oh, okay, infomation overload. But is that why you were so afraid to talk to me? You didn’t want to accidentally enchant me, or something?”

“Ha, yeah. In hindsight, it’s dumb, because it only works when I sing, but I suppose one can never be too careful, right?”

“Well, that was dumb.

Azura raises an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“Not you, don’t worry, just this whole thing. I mean, if I’d asked you sooner, we  could have worked something out, and - mmph!”

Burying her face back into her pillow, Corrin lets out a muffled groan. “Sorry, sorry, go shower or do whatever you were going to do. I’ll, uh, talk to you later? I hope.”

Azura smiles and reaches for her discarded pile of dry clothes.

“And your voice is really pretty, by the way!” Corrin yells, taking pleasure in the small blush that crosses Azura’s face right before the bathroom door closes.

———————————————————————————-

“You have it bad,” Laslow states in the most serious voice he can manage. “You have it _really_ bad.”

“I don’t need you to tell me, Mister Womanizer,” Corrin shoots back, pointedly ignoring the Very Interested Looks that Camilla and Peri were sending her. “Besides, what are you and Peri doing here? Xander never said anything about having visitors over.”

“We’re just picking up paperwork.” Laslow waves his hand and tips his chair farther back, grinning like a madman. “But don’t change the subject. When can I meet this Azura and when are you going to ask her out?”

“Laslow! I can’t just do that! I mean, you can, but she’s my roommate and I am not going to ruin a perfectly good friendship. Or housemateship. Whatever it is we have right now.”

“I know that look! That is the look of fear. Trust me, I’ve seen it on myself plenty of times to recognize it. You’re just too afraid of what could happen to see what would happen! Anyways, if Azura has any sense at all, she’ll like you too.”

“Speaking of your housemate,” Xander interjects, walking into the living room with papers and interrupting Corrin’s jumbled train of thought, “shouldn’t you text her that you won’t be getting back today? You did mention once that she was the type to worry.”

“Thanks, big brother. I completely forgot about that.”

Corrin reaches for her phone and sends out a few rapid-fire texts.

 **Corrin** : hey

 **Corrin** : remember when I said I was going to visit my family

 **Corrin** : I don’t think I’ll make it back tonight, you good on your own?

Not even a minute later, Corrin’s phone pings.

 **Azura** : don’t worry about me. you have fun, okay?

Laslow catches sight of Corrin’s sudden smile, and manages to yell out one last “you’ve got it bad!” before Peri drags him out of the house.

———————————————————————————-

“Azura? I’m back!”

Corrin lets the door slam shut behind her, focusing instead on not upsetting the heaping pan of casserole in her arms. “It’s only, what, eight am? But the traffic is insane, I’m guessing there’s some sort of festival going on today that I don’t know about. Oh! And I brought…food…”

She trails off, abruptly forgetting whatever she was about to say. Because 1) Azura was not present, 2) Azura was probably in the shower, judging by the sound of running water, and 3) Azura was singing.

Corrin had, in fact, remembered reading about how enchanting sirens could be; after finding out that many sailors had died after being exposed, she had raised an eyebrow and shuddered, imagining how worried Azura must have been trying to hide from her. But actually hearing the singing in real life couldn’t hold a candle to any written description, no matter how long and detailed.

The music flows over Corrin like her favorite blanket. She can practically smell home, and if she closes her eyes, she -

  
It stops abruptly, and Corrin reluctantly opens her eyes to see Azura standing on the other side of the room with a towel over her head.

Without thinking (she had been doing that a lot lately), Corrin crosses the distance between them with a few quick strides, holds Azura’s face gently, and just kisses her.

It lasts for all of ten seconds before Azura comes to her senses and jerks away. Corrin can almost see the walls coming back up in Azura’s eyes and just grips her shoulders tighter.

“Azura, no. This isn’t some…dream-induced reality caused by your singing. I wasn’t forced or anything, I just - I genuinely do like you, alright? And I completely understand if you don’t feel the same - in that case, we can just forget this ever happened - but you’re just. So beautiful and so kind and so much more than just a voice and I hope that you reali - “

Azura’s lips meet Corrin’s once more, effectively shutting her up.

“Did you mean all that?” Azura whispers. “I’m sorry…it’s been so long since…well, family is great and all but…”

“I meant every word. Please, Azura, it kills me when you don’t see how loved you are, by me or your friend or your family. Not talking to protect us is great, sure, but we don’t want to be protected. We’re find with you the way you are, and… if it means getting spellstruck every once in a while, it’s worth it.”

Azura buries her head into Corrin’s neck and holds onto her as tight as she can. “Can we…stay like this a little while longer?”

Corrin’s arms come up to rub Azura’s back, and she presses a kiss onto the top of Azura’s head.

“Of course. For as long as you want.”


End file.
